Saturday, December 31, 2016

Galatians 1:15-16 (KJV)But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

It was certainly the pleasure of God that revealed Christ to Paul and brought about his salvation. But this passage isn’t teaching it.

The point of these verses is that it was God’s pleasure to use Paul to reveal Christ to the heathen.

It pleased God to save him from death at birth

It pleased God to bring revelations concerning Christ to Paul and

It pleased God to call him into the work of preaching

It is the will of God that all would be saved and it is pleasing to Him when one is saved. It is a gross error to read into this passage that God is pleased that one man be saved and thus equally pleased that another is not.

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Galatians 1:15-16 (KJV) It Pleased God

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Friday, December 30, 2016

Jeremiah 23:1-4 (KJV)Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.

This passage is challenging for at least two reasons:The use of the title “pastors” is different than we understand it todayWe use the title “pastor” for the leader of our church. We see the pastor as the spiritual shepherd of a local congregation. While some have styled themselves as:

radio pastors

television pastors and

internet pastors,

we think of the pastor as the shepherd of a local church.

That is not what that title meant to God in Jeremiah’s day. There were prophets and priests who had the spiritual charge over God’s flock of the day, Israel. Bible students such as Barnes and Gill agree that this (pastors) refers to a civil leader.

The use of the term “visit” is different than we understand it today.We think of a pastoral visit as something of a comfort. It’s the preacher coming to our home for a meal or to attend our kid’s birthday party. There’s nothing wrong with him doing those things, but that’s not what is intended in Jeremiah. Consider for example those passages that speak of the day of God’s visitation. By it, the Bible means His judgment. It’s a reference to the time when God corrects wrong.

It is this sort of visitation that Jeremiah’s pastors were guilty of neglecting. The people were straying from the commands of the law and it was their responsibility to rein them in. It was a responsibility they had all but abandoned.

It would be more accurate to apply this passage to our:

mayors

judges and

councilmen

They are the ones who have abandoned the Word of God, scattered their faith to the wind and set our moral integrity adrift.

God’s answer?

I believe it is the New Testament Church. There, a soul may find a shepherd who will feed them God’s Word and provide them moral (as well as spiritual) direction.

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Jeremiah 23:1-4 (KJV) God’s Answer?

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Thursday, December 29, 2016

2 Corinthians 13:4 (KJV)For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

There resides within the Christian this dichotomy of weakness vs strength.

On the one hand we are weak in this world.We have never been the mighty, the noble or the majority. Even when we have had the greatest influence, such as in the beginning of the United States, our ideas were only lightly embraced and that, only from the perspective of the most popular denominations. Baptists and other smaller denominations contented themselves in that we were given liberty, not wealth, prestige and power.

At the same time the believers of yesteryear had great power with souls

No king,

No religion,

No movement,

No legislation

was able to stop the spread of their doctrines.

The true power of Christianity is not to be found in Catholicism or Protestantism and their wedding with governments. The true power of Christianity is to be seen in the hated Anabaptists and their survival and growth despite the vehement persecution of them.

Weakness with powerWeakness in the eyes of leaders. But power in the hearts of the common man.

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2 Corinthians 13:4 (KJV) Weakness With Power

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Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Jeremiah 21:3-9 (KJV)Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah:Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.And afterward, saith the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.

Though it isn’t a perfect fit and I would not be insistent upon forcing this interpretation, I see a foreshadow of the Tribulation in these verses.

It begins with God fighting themThe first half of the Tribulation is marked by every sort of natural disaster

Drought

Famine

Pestilence

Earthquakes

Fires

Etc

The disasters are such that a fraction of the population of the world survives.

It is followed by Babylon being unleashed on those that remainThe second half of the Tribulation is marked by the aggressive and violent rule of Antichrist. The only real survivors are those who risk death by Antichrist.

Those who follow him will ultimately perish. In the end, only those who refuse his mark and risk their lives in it go to the millennial kingdom.

Christ taught the principle that those who save their lives shall lose it and those who give their lives shall save it.

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Jeremiah 21:3-9 (KJV) A Tribulation Foreshadowing?

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Tuesday, December 27, 2016

2 Corinthians 12:15 (KJV)And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.

A case could be made that Paul was an emotional man. Though he was a leader of men, in both his secular[1] and spiritual roles, Paul had a side of him that tended to great sensitivity. He spoke of how he cherished his converts. They were his fellow servants, fellow prisoners, and children in the faith.

I am led to observe that sensitivity is not feminine. The manliest of men can be brought to tears. Compassion is not for sissies but for the big and burliest of guys.

I, like Paul, can list the names of people that I love very much but refuse to love me in return. There are former members of the churches I have pastored whom I considered family: brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, and even some I could easily have thought of as parents in the faith. For one reason or another, though I still love them and grieve over them, they have come to hate me.

I do not see where Paul ever got over those who would not love him.I do see that his pain never stopped him from loving them or from serving the Lord.

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2 Corinthians 12:15 (KJV) Compassion is Not For Sissies

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Monday, December 26, 2016

2 Corinthians 11:23-29 (KJV)Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?

It is fascinating what Apostle Paul considered proofs of his ministry:

SufferingVs23-27Pastor Dwight Tomlinson preached recently at our church. Brother Tomlinson is the founder of Barnabas 10/40, a missionary ministry. In speaking about suffering he explained how most Christians of the world don’t think like Americans. They expect suffering, even jail, to be par for the Christian course. They think of jail time as nearly a part of Christian testing, especially for pastors. Paul obviously thought similarly.

CareVs 28This wasn’t “hands on” physical caring for buildings (they didn’t have them) or persons (he was away from them) this was care of the heart and soul. I imagine it was most clearly manifested in prayer.

EmpathyVs 29Paul allowed himself to feel what they felt. He rejoiced when they rejoiced, he wept when they wept.

The proof of ministry is not:

the ordination paper,

the size of the congregation or

the number of professions of faith one records

The proof of ministry is in the passion for Christ and for those God allows him to shepherd.

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2 Corinthians 11:23-29 (KJV) The Proof of Ministry

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Sunday, December 25, 2016

2 Corinthians 10:6 (KJV)And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

I have no doubt but that the common understanding of this passage, that Paul was prepared to deal with the disobedient once he was assured that the church was in order, is a good one. That Paul’s first goal was to lead the church into obedience and only afterwards would he discipline those who refuse to get right makes sense with the Scriptures.

But I see another interpretation that has merit and instruction. Obedience is in itself the best revenge against disobedience.

The most gratifying of outcomes for the preacher is not:

Seeing the sinner condemned

Watching the wayward fall or

Hearing of the backslidden’s pain

What brings the greatest joy to the preacher, and the thing that to him best vindicates wrongs committed, is to see the most disobedient

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2 Corinthians 10:6 (KJV) The Best Revenge of Wrong

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Saturday, December 24, 2016

2 Corinthians 9:4 (KJV)Lest haply if they of Macedonia come with me, and find you unprepared, we (that we say not, ye) should be ashamed in this same confident boasting.

None of us like to be judged. Especially is this true when we are being judged concerning what someone else has said of us.

Consider this scene:Paul has boasted, in his travels, of the generosity of the Christians in the church at Corinth. Paul was so confident that they would give significantly for the relief of the believers in Jerusalem that he had used them to provoke others to do the same.

Now he is making reading to go to Corinth and take up this collection and the thought comes to him, “What if some of those who have heard my boasts come along with me? What if Corinth isn’t as prepared for this offering as I have boasted?“

He chooses to send representatives ahead to give Corinth time to be ready lest, Paul says, he “be ashamed.” He specifically placed the shame upon himself and not Corinth should that be the case. He would be his shame, not that he boasted, but that he had not adequately prepared them.

I can hear someone in Corinth saying”

Who says we have to make Paul look good?

Who cares if others think less of us than Paul boasted?

Who says we have to be generous just because Paul has bragged we are generous?

Fact is, none of us care to be held to higher expectations. We don’t like the pressure of others looking at us as examples. We certainly don’t want to be judged for what someone we did not know was looking sees in us.

I think this is the point of the passage. We may not care for it but it is a fact. It is a fact that the Bible acknowledges and instructs us here to bow to.

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2 Corinthians 9:4 (KJV) Be An Example

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Friday, December 23, 2016

Jeremiah 20:10 (KJV)For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

It would be absurd to suppose that everyone in his day knew Jeremiah. The population of the city was sufficient and the interests of people such that:

Some may not have ever heard his name

Some were only vaguely familiar with his name but

Some knew him well and were in a position to watch his testimony

Many of those familiars watched for a chink in his armor. They observed him, looking for:

an inconsistency to his faith,

a glitch in his walk,

a stumble along his path

We know those things existed, partly because the very chapter reveals one and mostly because it is true of us all. The lesson isn’t in whether or not they were there. The lesson is in the fact that people familiar with him looked for them.

We might not think it’s fair or just but it is a truth – those who openly walk with Christ will have some whose only interest in us will be to watch us fall.

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Jeremiah 20:10 (KJV) Don’t Give Them The Opportunity

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Thursday, December 22, 2016

Jeremiah 18:12 (KJV)And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

The people of Jerusalem, as seen in this chapter, serve as an illustration of the path that leads to anti Christian action:

They forgot God

They worshipped vanities

They fell into unspeakable sins

They lost hope of salvation and finally

They attacked the preachers of hope

But the truth is that there is always hope. God is able and willing to change the worst of sinners if only they will turn to God. Just as the potter can remold the clay, the Lord can regenerate anyone.

But there is a limit. The clay can become too hard to work. It is then good for nothing but to be broken up and destroyed.

There is hope. With God nothing is impossible. Any man, woman boy or girl can be changed into the image of Christ. Just don’t take this grace for granted. The time to repent is now.

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Jeremiah 18:12 (KJV) Is There Any Hope?

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Wednesday, December 21, 2016

2 Corinthians 7:3 (KJV)I speak not this to condemn you: for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you.

The pastoral heart is revealed more fully in no other portion of God’s Word than it is in the chapters surrounding this passage.

Paul is shown here in the conflict he faces within himself. He must obey God rather than men. He must preach the Word “not as pleasing men but God, which trieth our hearts.”[1]

This in no way means he has no heart for his congregation. He would die and live with them.

He struggles in his soul, waiting for the response to the Word.He knows the risk. Certainly he has seen it happen too frequently that those he has reached out to have rejected his ministry. What of his most recent attempt? Have these turned against him for his preaching? Have they repented and turned to Christ and to him?

What joy! What relief! News has returned to him of their great heart for him.The pastor is relieved and rejoices that, this time and with this congregation, his ministry has been received in the spirit it was intended. He is strengthened, knowing only too well this will not be his last experience like this.

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2 Corinthians 7:3 (KJV) The Pastoral Heart

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Tuesday, December 20, 2016

2 Corinthians 7:12 (KJV)Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.

There are great lessons in the Pauline Epistles for the preacher. Paul often carefully expresses

His motives for ministry

His priorities in ministry and

His methods for ministry

I note here that Paul ‘s concern was for something greater than either the offended or the offender. He wasn’t seeking vengeance against the sinner nor was he looking for recompense for the victim. His concern was for the church body as a whole. The individuals mattered, to be sure.

Paul’s careful mention of the names of his fellow laborers, friends and helpers in the Lord reveals his love for the individual believer. But Paul never lost sight of the bigger picture, the purity of and integrity of the local church.

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2 Corinthians 7:12 (KJV) The Bigger Picture

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Monday, December 19, 2016

2 Corinthians 6:4-10 (KJV)But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings;By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true;As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

This is the Scriptural way a preacher’s ministry is approved. Notice:

Nothing is said of number of professions

Nothing is said of number of baptisms

Nothing is said of conference speaking invitations

Nothing is said of awards and plaques

Nothing is said of recognition in magazines

The truly approved preachers are very likely little known preachers. He values only the approval of the Lord. That probably makes him less approved by others.

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2 Corinthians 6:4-10 (KJV) An Approved Ministry

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Sunday, December 18, 2016

2 Corinthians 5:4-5 (KJV)For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

Little wonder Paul was so confident of eternal life. He said that God wrought or made us for that very thing.

Man was not created for mortality but that his mortality would be swallowed up in life. We come into this world mortal beings but it is not intended that we remain in that state. Mortality may be swallowed up, devoured, overwhelmed to the point of disappearance, through faith in Christ. Those, who are originally mortal, never cease to exist. Rather they become something greater – life.

Paul’s assurance of this truth is the earnest of the Spirit.

It is not provable by any current scientific standard

It is difficult if not impossible to explain to the one without this earnest but

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2 Corinthians 5:4-5 (KJV) Something Greater than Mortal

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Saturday, December 17, 2016

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (KJV)But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

The God of this world is by no means as powerful as the true and living God but he is nonetheless, powerful. He is more powerful than the Calvinist wants to give him credit.

The Calvinist claims that God has elected only a few to be saved and that all of them in fact get saved. (Though and this can never be proven but only assumed by faith.) He then claims that everyone else has been chosen to show the righteousness of God by their torment in hell. He claims that any other scheme makes God appear to be weak because he is not able to save everyone. He then blames the Arminian (synergist) of proposing that God is a weak, loving God who would have all to be saved but is unable to fulfill His own will.

This view fails to take into account the god of this world. Paul believed that those who failed to be saved did so because another force was at work in this world. That force, though not as powerful as God, does affect the hearts of men.

God has not chosen a few to be saved and, by default, elected all others to hell. He has chosen that salvation be offered to all men but only through the gospel of Christ. Those who receive the gospel are saved. Those who do not are lost. The god of this world, empowered by the very sin nature of man, influences who does and does not believe.

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2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (KJV) No Place for the Devil

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Friday, December 16, 2016

2 Corinthians 3:17 (KJV)Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

2 Corinthians 3:6 (KJV)Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

The Lord Jesus Christ is that Spirit that gives both liberty and life to the New Testament believer.

Jews, entrenched in the letter of Old Testament law, had turned God’s Word into a lethal moral code. Abandoning the Spirit of the Lord, they had reinterpreted and reconstructed the faith God delivered to Moses into something diametrically opposed to the Spirit of the Lord. Faith in Christ restores that Spirit.

Reformed theology, dating back to its very beginning, attempts to preserve the lethal letter while claiming to possess the Spirit at the same time. One has merely to run into the likes of today’s modern Reformed podcasters to experience this deathly faith first hand. Apparently this same tendency existed in Corinth.

Paul’s antidote was, as it is today, a good dose of Jesus. When we read the Word of God through lens of the Savior we find liberty of conscience and life for all who humble themselves and believe.

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2 Corinthians 3:17 (KJV) Paul’s Antidote for Lethalism

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Thursday, December 15, 2016

2 Corinthians 2:3 (KJV)And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.

Apostle Paul said in the first verse that he had determined not to come to Corinth in heaviness. There were things that had caused heaviness in his heart. He said there had been many tears and much affliction and anguish. But he took steps to turn that around.

First, he determined to do itNo bout of depression and sorrow will end accidentally. A person is going to have to decide to get out of the funk.

Secondly, he took stepsIf a person is going to climb out of the dumps he is going to have to climb.

Thirdly he wrotePaul wrote the church in Corinth and confronted the situation head on. You’ll have someone else to write and you’ll have different reasons to write, but write. Sometimes it’s not a person we need to write to but a subject upon which we must write. Many times no one else will ever read it for we know we should never publish it. Writing has healing properties all its own.

Fourthly Paul forgaveBitterness, refusing to forgive, is a poison that kills only the one who holds it. Forgiveness is an antidote for depression.

Fifthly, Paul continued preaching the gospelStay active. Stay productive. Positive contributions lead to positive thinking. Especially stay faithful witnessing. The lost need us to do it. It may be that we need to do it even more than they need to hear it.

Sixth, Paul found fellowshipWe need good Christian fellowship when we are down.

Seventh, Paul was thankfulThink about things for which to give thanks daily.

Finally Paul focused on ChristTrue thoughts concerning Christ can only lift the one thinking them.

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2 Corinthians 2:3 (KJV) How To Overcome Heaviness of Heart

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His Name Is Jesus

About Me

I was born in the Pacific Northwest and have lived the majority of my life right here. I became a Christian at the age of 18. God has allowed me to pastor Baptist churches in Washington and Oregon for the better part of 30 years. I have also enjoyed the opportunity to serve as the executive vice president of Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College in San Dimas, CA and move with the college to become Heartland Baptist Bible College in Oklahoma City, OK.